Birthday's to share this week : 11th - 17th June 2017.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Kodi Smit-McPhee does on 13th June - check out my tribute to this Birthday Lad turning 21, at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 11th June

• Hugh Laurie - Born 1959, turns 58 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Director | Singer
• Peter Dinklage - Born 1969, turns 48 - Actor | Producer
• Shia LaBeouf - Born 1986, turns 31 - Actor | Director | Producer | Writer   

Monday 12th June

• Richard Ayoade - Born 1977, turns 40 - Actor | Writer | Director | Producer
• Dave Franco - Born 1985, turns 32 - Actor | Writer | Producer
• Frances O'Connor - Born 1967, turns 50 - Actress  

Tuesday 13th June

• Malcolm McDowell - Born 1943, turns 74 - Actor | Producer
• Stellan Skarsgard - Born1951, turns 66 - Actor | Producer
• Tim Allen - Born 1953, turns 64 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Chris Evans - Born 1981, turns 36 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Aaron Taylor-Johnson - Born 1990, turns 27 - Actor 
• Kodi Smit-McPhee - Born 1996, turns 21 - Actor
• Ally Sheedy - Born 1962, turns 55 - Actress 
• Kathy Burke - Born 1964, turns 53 - Actress | Writer | Director | Producer  
• Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen - Born 1986, turns 31 - Actresses | Producers | Twin Sisters 

Wednesday 14th June

• Diablo Cody - Born 1978, turns 39 - Writer | Producer | Director
• Donald Trump - Born 1946, turns 71 - Actor | Producer | Television Personality | President of the USA | Leader of the Free World   

Thursday 15th June

• Jim Belushi - Born 1954, turns 63 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Director | 
• Ice Cube (aka O'Shea Jackson) - Born 1969, turns 48 - Singer | Songwriter | Actor | Producer | Writer | Director
• Jake Busey - Born 1971, turns 46 - Actor | Producer
• Neil Patrick Harris - Born 1973, turns 44 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Director | Singer
• Helen Hunt - Born 1963, turns 54 - Actress | Director | Producer | Writer 
• Courteney Cox - Born 1964, turns 53 - Actress | Producer | Director | Singer  

Friday 16th June

• James Bolam - Born 1935, turns 82 - Actor 
• Arnold Vosloo - Born 1962, turns 55 - Actor | Producer
• John Choo - Born 1972, turns 45 - Actor | Producer
• Daniel Bruhl - Born 1978, turns 39 - Actor | Producer   

Saturday 17th June

• Ken Loach - Born 1936, turns 81 - Director | Writer | Producer
• Thomas Haden Church - Born 1960, turns 57 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Director
• Greg Kinnear - Born 1963, turns 54 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Director
• Jason Patric - Born 1966, turns 51 - Actor 
• Will Forte - Born 1970, turns 47 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer
• Louis Leterrier - Born 1973, turns 44 - Director | Producer 
• Scott Adkins - Born 1976, turns 41 - Actor | Producer

Kodi Smit-McPhee was born in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia to mother Sonja and father Andy McPhee - an Actor and professional wrestler. Kodi has an older sister, Sianoa, born in early 1992, and she is an Actress, Singer and Songwriter. When the young Kodi was about three years of age the family unit relocated to Melbourne.

Smit-McPhee's debut screen appearance came in the 2006 Stuart McDonald Directed 52 minute short film 'Stranded', and this was followed up by 'Fatal Contact : Bird Flu in America' with Joely Richardson and Stacy Keach. Another short film of fifteen minutes also appeared in 2006 - 'End of Town' and then four episodes on the first and only season of television series 'Monarch Cove', before biographical drama 'The King' about the story of Graham Kennedy, described as Australia's first and greatest home grown television superstar. These in turn led to Smit-McPhee's breakout role at the tender age of ten in the Richard Roxburgh biographical drama 'Romulus, My Father' playing the young son Raimond Gaita to father Romulus (Eric Bana) and mother Christina (Franka Potenta). Smit-McPhee won the Young Actors Award at the 2007 Australian Film Institute Awards, was also nominated for Best Lead Actor, and won a Special Achievement Award at the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards.  

'The Tender Hook' followed in 2008 with Rose Byrne and Hugo Weaving, and then another awards worthy performance in John Hillcoat's 2009 post-apocalyptic world adventure drama 'The Road' based on the Cormac McCarthy novel and starring alongside Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce and Charlize Theron. 

'Matching Jack' came next in 2010 with Richard Roxburgh, Colin Friels and James Nesbitt. More award wins and nominations followed for his performance in the 2010 Matt Reeves Written and Directed remake of the earlier 2008 Swedish film 'Let the Right One In', with horror mystery 'Let Me In' opposite Chloe Grace Moretz and Richard Jenkins. Aussie drama film 'Dead Europe' followed as did live action/animated Sci-Fi drama film 'The Congress' with Robin Wright, Paul Giamatti, John Hamm, Danny Huston and Harvey Keitel. 'Romeo & Juliet' with Hailee Steinfeld, Damian Lewis, Stellan Skarsgard and Paul Giamatti also arrived at our screens in 2013, as did 'A Birder's Guide to Everything' with Ben Kingsley. 

2014 saw Smit-McPhee work with Matt Reeves again in 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' with Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Toby Kebbell and Keri Russell. The same year also saw 'All the Wilderness' with Danny DeVito, Virginia Madsen and Isabelle Fuhrman, and then Sci-Fi post-drought apocalypse actioner 'Young Ones' with Michael Shannon, Nicholas Hoult and Elle Fanning. 

Western 'Slow West' as Directed and Written by John Maclean was released in 2015 and also starred Michael Fassbender, Ben Mendelssohn, and this lead into the seven part one hundredth anniversary television drama mini-series special 'Gallipoli' with Smit-McPhee taking a lead role as seventeen year old Thomas 'Tolly' Johnson who lies about his age so that he can enlist in the First World War effort with his brother, and ultimately fight at Gallipoli in the raging, bloody and long drawn out battle that helped create the legend of the ANZAC's.

In 2016 Smit-McPhee starred as Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in Bryan Singer's 'X-Men : Apocalypse' based on the popular and long running film franchise founded on the Marvel Comics characters. This ninth film in the 'X-Men' franchise stars an ensemble cast that you will be well aware of, and took US$544M at the global Box Office. 

Next up for Smit-McPhee is 'The Solutrean' Written and Directed by Albert Hughes and due for release towards the back end of this year. The film tells the survival story set 20,000 years ago during the last Ice Age as a young caveman struggles against the elements to find his way home after a hunting expedition goes awry. 

All up Smit-McPhee has 26 Acting credits to his name, having lent his voice talents also to the animated features 'ParaNorman' and 'Maya the Bee Movie'. He has already amassed three award wins for his performances in 'Romulus, My Father' and 'Let Me In' plus a further 23 nominations. Kodi is now a resident of Los Angeles, California where he lives with this Actress sister. 

Kodi Smit-McPhee - the young lad from Adelaide has done good; just 21 years of age and already has worked with some of the best Acting and Directorial talent in the business, and, has the accolades to prove it; is a star on the rise; in demand and sought after; and has got the talent to work across just about all genres. Happy 21st Birthday to you Kodi, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 11th June 2015.

Another week and another raft of cinematic content coming your way, boosted Down Under by the Sydney Film Festival in full swing as I tap away at my keyboard to bring you the Previews of this weeks latest releases. With many films in competition and many getting their Premier at the SFF, this gives us six new movies that are a mash up of Hollywood Blockbuster, comedy, foreign language, documentary and drama from mainstream to independent. Once again this spells plenty of choice and diversity in the offing which can only be a good thing for the likes of you and me.

With this in mind, first up we have the reboot of a hugely successful prehistoric theme park franchise that has so far given us three successful films, and after an absence of fourteen years the gates are open once again. Then there is an action comedy offering what seems to be the usual cop on the run protecting some poor downtrodden waif pursued across the USofA by badass gun totting henchmen; then some big name stars relocated to small hicksville backwater outback town in far away country Australia where dust storms, lost kids and finger pointing are the order of the day; followed up by a Spanish entry into the canon as two very different detectives must unite to hunt down a serial killer before more women die; then a old wild west tale of a young lad out of his depth and out of his comfort zone searching for his love guided by a mystery high plains drifter through treacherous country; and finally a documentary examining the great divide in Great Britain.

With some solid offerings coming your way in the week ahead you can't not be tempted by what is on offer. Get yourself to your local movie theatre and do yourself a favour, and when you have sat through your movie of choice drop us a Comment or two afterwards in the box immediately following this or any other Post and share your thoughts, observations and opinions with the your friends at Odeon Online. Enjoy your film!

JURASSIC WORLD (Rated M) - Back in 1993 Steven Spielberg Directed the first in this hugely successful franchise that changed how we perceive animated creatures on screen forever. 'Jurassic Park' back then was made for US$63M and generated US$1.03B at the global box office and in after sales making it (at that time) the most commercially successful film of all time. In 1997 Spielberg followed this up with 'Jurassic Park : The Lost World' which he made for US$73M and it raked in US$619M, and in 2001 Joe Johnston made 'Jurassic Park III' for US$93M and it brought in US$369M - the least successful so far. Now, in 2015 (after about ten years in 'development hell') Colin Trevorrow has turned his Directing attention to the world of Jurassic Park, and with a budget of US$150M++, and Steven Spielberg on Producer duty, brings us to the all new, all singing, all dancing open for business 'Jurassic World'.

Set 22 years after the events of the last film the vision that John Hammond had back then for his dinosaur theme park is now fully realised back on Isla Nublar, off the Central American Pacific Coast. With a change of ownership to The Masrani Corporation, the park is attracting visitors aplenty and all is good at Jurassic World . . . for a little while at least! Of course any theme park needs to keep reinventing itself, need to refresh and reinvest and so it is at this one too. Ordered to create a new dinosaur with which to lure more crowds to visit, the scientists and geneticists set about engineering a hybrid dinosaur which they call 'Indominus rex'. Needless to say when Indominus decides to form its own opinion, wise up and get smart it runs amok and you just know it's gonna get ugly and there'll be people munching aplenty! It falls to on-site dino-trainer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Operations Manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), and InGen Security Head Vic Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio) to save the day as the body count start to rise, the carnage becomes more widespread and the lovely animals turn less so!

STRANGERLAND (Rated MA15+) - This is the Directorial debut for Kim Ferrant, and a film I saw in a test screening back at Fox Studios in Sydney last August. Here we have a typical family comprising pharmacist husband Matthew Parker (Joseph Fiennes) and his wife Catherine (Nicole Kidman), and their two kids Lily (Madison Brown) and Tommy (Nicholas Hamilton). They have had to relocate to the desert outback escaping from the big smoke (which is explained later on as the film progresses) and so have wound up in Nathgari. It's a fresh start but hardly one that really any of them would wish for. They are a pleasant unassuming family who largely keep themselves to themselves living on the outskirts of the community. One day as a dust storm approaches the town the two young kids go walkabout and wander off into the desert - not to be seen again. As the dust storm engulfs the town so emotions rise and a search is mounted afterwards by the locals and the community cop David Rae (Hugo Weaving), but as the search proves fruitless and the temperature rises with the searing heat, so too does the rumour, suspicion, speculation and finger pointing as every day passes. The tension mounts and increasingly Matthew and Catherine find themselves at odds with each other, the townsfolk and what has become of their children.

MARSHLAND (Rated MA15+) - this is a Spanish film that was released in Spain back in September 2014 and it took out ten awards at the 'Goya Awards' in February this year honouring the best in Spanish film making. Directed by Alberto Rodriguez and set in 1980, this sees two detectives from Madrid with a very different set of ideals who must work together on a double murder case in the remote town on the Guadalquivir Marshes in Seville province, Andalusia, in southern Spain where the men have been sent following their reprimand back in Madrid. Working together they must put their differences aside to find the killer who has been preying on young girls for many years, and do so before he strikes again.

SLOW WEST (Rated M) - Writer and first time Director John Mclean has crafted an 1870's Colorado based frontier Western filmed in New Zealand and Scotland, that is out already on a very limited Aussie cinema release. Starring Michael Fassbender as Silas Selleck - a bounty hunter and chaperon to young lovelorn teenager Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who has made the trek from his native Scotland to the wild west frontier in search of his true love Rose Ross (Caren Pistorios) and her father John Ross (Rory McCann). Along the way there are various other bounty hunters, opportunists and miscreants all on the trail of Rose & John and a hidden agenda by Silas that add humour, violence, and sweeping scenery along the way. An award winner at this years Sundance Film Festival, for genre followers this is worth seeking out. Check out my full Review Posted earlier this week.

HOT PURSUIT (Rated M) - This film is Directed by Anne Fletcher and stars a couple of big name draw card female Actors that seriously make me think WTF are you doing in this? Made for US$35M is has already clawed that back since its US release one month ago, but I can't help thinking this is formulaic fluff that we have seen a hundred times before. Here we have intense, never-off-duty, workaholic Police Officer for the San Antonio PD Rose Cooper (Reece Witherspoon, who also Produces here) who is assigned to escort and protect a drug cartel informant Felipe Riva (Vincent Laresca) and his wife Daniella (Sofia Vergara) who are soon to testify against Vincente Cortez (Joaquin Cosio). Cooper is paired up with a Senior Detective Jackson and upon arriving at the Riva household there is a welcome committee and pretty soon Jackson and Felipe wind up dead! At this point Cooper and Daniella need to buddy up, quickly and get the hell outta there, and so they go on the run, getting chased down by the badass hoods while dodging crooked Coppers too, and bonding along the way as girls do in such circumstances until a double-cross gets thrown into the mix and it all goes pear shaped! Of course it's all good in the end as the baddies get thwarted, the goodies get rewarded, and those sat somewhere in between pay the price but come out smiling! Yawn!

THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES (Rated M) - Written and Directed by the acclaimed Michael Winterbottom this Documentary seems to be in the style of that other Michael who has carved out a career poking a big stick into even bigger issues - Moore that is - and has done so successfully for the last fifteen years - gun laws, 9/11, healthcare and the world of high finance to name a few. And so it is Winterbottom's turn with confident orator/actor/comedian and spokesperson of the world Russell Brand in front of the camera. Here the subject matter is the great divide between the rich and the poor, the have's and the have not's, the privileged and the downtrodden and those travelling in first class and the schmucks back in economy! This film will attempt to probe into the world's economic centres and those pulling the strings within them, and ask what lessons were learned from 2008's GFC, what have we done as a result and why is the great divide growing increasingly greater by the year. Will this film gel you into action, make you think, create a difference and lead to a more balanced, equal and fair society for all - only you can decide, but if nothing else it is likely to be enlightening and entertaining all at once.

Six new release films then this week to get you out amongst it for a whole array of differing reasons not the least of which will be sheer unadulterated entertainment. When you have done so and pondered the enormity of your movie choice after the fact, share away and spread the word.

Movies - see another this week!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-